In the fight against COVID we’re expecting pharmaceutical companies to do the right thing, but why should they gamble billions if they don’t make a profit?

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: ‘No one is safe until everyone is safe.’ (Image: AP/Salvatore Di Nolfi)

In Both Sides Now, author and ethicist Leslie Cannold presents two sides of an argument. Then it’s over to you: what do you think is true, and what do you think Cannold really believes?

Today: are exclusive vaccine patents morally obscene in a pandemic? Or are they a necessary incentive for pharmaceutical companies to innovate?

Yes

We call them the Moderna, AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines. But if the billion-dollar investments in vaccines by governments around the world to reduce mortality from COVID-19 are any indicator, these lifesaving medical interventions aren’t the property of big pharma. They belong to us.





Source link